Microsoft offers Windows 10 as a freebie to Raspberry Pi devs

Microsoft has welcomed the new iteration of Raspberry pi mini computer rather warmly. With the unveiling of the Raspberry pi 2 today, Microsoft has announcedthat Windows 10 will support Raspberry Pi 2, which will be free for the maker community through the Windows Developer Program for IoT later this year.

Windows 10, unveiled last month, is expected to launch this summer, and is designed to work across mobile and desktop along with tablets, Xbox and all the other hybrids. Microsoft’s effort to pitch Windows 10 to Raspberry pi 2 projects how aggressively the Redmond giant, armed with its new operating system, is aiming to pull every possible device under its shadow, .

Windows 10 is the first step toward an era of more personal computing. This vision guided our efforts to reimagine Windows for a world that is more mobile, natural and grounded in trust. Windows 10 will inspire and support a broad range of devices.

Microsoft has been adopting a more open approach in recent times, and recently open-sourced its .NET software framework and released it on GitHub, with plans to target Mac OS X and Linux. Microsoft’s move is also a demonstration on the relevance of Windows 10 in the fast-moving, multi-platform age of next level computing.

The $35 Raspberry pi 2 is equipped with a quad-core chip, roughly six times powerful than its predecessor and twice the amount of main memory. Code for Windows 10 on Raspberry Pi 2 will be available for free for the maker community via Microsoft’s Windows Developer Program for IoT. Raspberry Pi has supported a handful of operating systems, including Linux. Since now it flashes an upgraded ARMv7 processor, it can support Windows too.

According to stats, Raspberry Pi has sold around 4.5 million units since February 2012, and 200,000 units of the credit-card-sized unit selling a week. That enormous count certainly lured the Redmont giant to be explored and be used as a hot opportunity to further expand the reachability of its Windows 10.